Dark Universe: Creature from the Black Lagoon
by Goku vs. Superman
Summary: I recently posted a story on The Mummy (2017) archive, a way to "fix" Universal's Dark Universe and this is the first story in that solution (please read it if you have the time). Please enjoy my remake/take of the remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon. Note: this will not be updated too often, I am juggling many stories at the time, but I will not give up on this either.
1. Chapter 1

Actors portraying characters: Dr. Charles – John Kapelos, Afonso – Diogo Morgado, Guilherme – Jose Fidalgo

* * *

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Female voice opens, "Creation by God, the Big Bang Theory, whatever it is you choose to believe, we can all agree on one thing: our world can be ugly and we have to look deep inside, through the ugliness, to find the beauty beneath."

An elderly man is standing at the bank of a large river, the river in front of him and a tent behind him, his arms are crossed as he stares at the water with a scowl. "Show yourself damn you," he says harshly to the water.

"Professor Lawrence!?" A young man cries out from behind Dr. Charles Lawrence.

Charles turns to see the young Brazilian man come from the lush of green leading back to civilization. "What is it, Afonso?"

Afonso grins as he walks to Charles. "I should ask you the same thing."

Charles turns back to scowl at the water.

"What are you doing, Professor?" Afonso asks in an exhausted manner as he stands next to Charles.

"Waiting, my boy," Charles answers stoically. Then with some irritation in his voice he tells Afonso, "And hoping those Prodigal bastards, or whatever they're called, don't return to take my research."

Afonso sighs. "Sir, all your research was about the Creature after they had killed her."

Charles whips to Afonso, pointing a finger at the young man. "There is no proof that she is dead. They only took her arm." He put his hands on his hips and looked out to the river. "'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' may still be alive."

Afonso chuckles and states his opinion, "That is such a silly name for a monster," he too staring out at the water. "Professor, if the creature is still alive then it would have shown itself by now like it had before those Agents of Shield guys killed it, but it hasn't."

"Not true, Afonso. The creature must be weary of humans after such a traumatic experience; and yet, I must not cease my search, despite the actions of those 'scientists' who dared to call themselves educated men."

Afonso turns back to Charles and asks, "Why is it so important for you to find this thing?"

"If the creature is indeed dead, then what those men were wrong to have done such a tragedy; not because they killed an innocent creature for 'research', but because of the potential evolutionary theories this creature could possess. If we are connected to this…fish-man, then our current theories would be undermined and our understandings forever changed. It's possible we may have actually found the missing link."

"And if it's not half-man?"

Charles chuckles. "Always a man of religion, aren't you, Afonso?"

Afonso smirks.

Charles relaxes and shifts to face his companion. "If this creature is not the missing link, then at least we will have discovered a potential new genus of mammals or homo sapiens. Regardless, its discovery will be groundbreaking, completely reshaping the world."

Afonso whistles and goes to Charles' tent. "That's a bit heavy handed, don't you think?"

"You and I have very different ideas of 'heavy handed'." Charles jokes and follows Afonso into the tent.

Upon entering the tent, Charles sees Afonso packing up his possessions.

Before Charles could question why or protest—

"You need to go back home to America, Professor," said Afonso.

"Yes, I know, but," Charles stops Afonso, "I am staying here for one more week."

Afonso smiles and says, "Good." He puts down the items in his hands and continues to talk to Charles. "My brother, myself, and all of Brazil will miss you."

Charles smirks and asks, "'All of Brazil'?"

Afonso sits on a chair, "Well, all of Portugal, at least."

The two then spent the rest of the evening talking and enjoying whiskey.

Afonso stands from his chair and questions Charles about his letter to his favorite student back in America.

"I will not be writing my final letter to him, instead, I will wait until I arrive back in the states and tell him about my failure here."

"Oh, don't call it a failure, Charles." Another young man comes into the tent.

"It's about time you showed, Guilherme." Charles replies.

Guilherme turns to Afonso, "Are you ready to go, brother?"

"I am," Afonso gives his attention back to Charles. "Are you going back to your hotel tonight?"

"Not tonight, I think I will spend one more night here." Charles looks around the tent fondly.

Guilherme asks Afonso, "So, you convinced him to go back home next week?"

The brothers bump fists.

"Out! Out the both of you!" Charles chases them out of his tent in a mock fashion.

"Will we be seeing you tomorrow for breakfast?" Guilherme questions.

"Yes, regrettably so."

The young men laughed as they proceeded to go back home.

"Goodnight, Professor."

"Goodnight, Charles."

"Goodnight, boys."

Hours later, from the river in front of Charles' tent, a scaly webbed hand arose from the water with elongated nails, bright silver scales, and a dark bluish-gray hue starting at the top of its middle finger going back.

Charles is asleep on his cot in the tent.

The sound of a low gurgling growl awakes Charles.

Charles groans as he slowly comes to reality, he sits up, rubs his eyes, and sees something in his tent. "What on earth!?"

A loud roar comes from the tent and is followed by Charles screaming.


	2. Chapter 2

Daniel Reed - Kendall Schmidt, Kaitlyn Maria - Zoey Deutch, Matthew Wilkens - Nicholas Hoult

* * *

Daniel wakes up to his phone's alarm. He stands from his dorm bed, in nothing but boxers, and stretches.

His room is of a standard single dorm room, clean and well kept by his attentiveness.

Daniel turns off his alarm and goes to a terrarium with a grey rat snake inside. He leans down to the snake's level and greets the animal.

"How's it going this morning, David?"

The snake flutters its tongue.

"How would you like it if I got you Kaitlyn's gerbil for lunch?"

David lifted his head, as if he understood.

Daniel chuckles and then proceeds to start his day with a shower.

Minutes later, after his shower, a knock comes from his door.

"Who is it!?" He asks loudly, yet politely, from his desk.

"R.A.!" The Dorm R.A. calls from the hall. "Got some mail for you, Daniel!"

Daniel walks to his door and opens it for his mail.

"Here ya go," the R.A. hands him the mail.

"Thanks, man," Daniel responds.

The R.A. says, "No problem," and continues down his trek with his mail cart.

Daniel shuts his door and sorts through his mail.

He sighs. "Come on, Dr. Charles."

Later, Daniel comes into his girlfriend's apartment and sees her dancing to _Someone to Call My Lover_.

She closes her eyes and begins jumping in a circle, swinging her head back and forth. She turns her back to Daniel and he starts dancing along, copying her moves.

She turns around again, but opens her eyes to see Daniel. She shrieks, hastily shuts her music off, and laughs with Daniel.

Daniel holds her in his arms; the two stop laughing and stare lovingly.

Daniel smirks. "Really, Kaitlyn? _Someone to Call My Lover_?"

Kaitlyn smiles and tells him to shut up.

"What?" He chuckles. "Am I not your lover!?"

She throws her head back with an, "Oh my God!" She feigns exasperation. "That was the cringiest question."

Daniel pulls her closer and they kiss.

Minutes later, the two are sitting on Kaitlyn's couch drinking beer. Kaitlyn sitting in the middle with her legs over Daniel's lap.

"So," Kaitlyn starts playing with Daniel's hair, "have you heard from Dr. Lawrence?"

Daniel looks down, discontent and tells her, "No. It's been a while since I last heard from him. He was supposed to be back by now. He should've called me or something."

Kaitlyn smiles and reassures Daniel, he is Dr. Lawrence's student, not wife.

Daniel bops her face with a pillow.

Kaitlyn laughs and the two start wrestling.

"Can I give your gerbil to David for lunch? I promised him."

"No!"

At Prodigium:

Dr. Jekyll walks into his office with files of paper, followed by Matthew.

"What makes you think this will happen, Mr. Wilkens?" Jekyll asks, as he comes to his desk.

Matthew clears his throat. "If you knew this…colleague," he exaggerates the word, "of mine, you would not be questioning the validity of my assumption."

Jekyll slams the papers onto his desk. "And there lies the problem. 'Assumption'; that's all this is, nothing more."

"Doctor, please. The probability of this not happening is exceptionally inferior in comparison."

Dr. Jekyll sees the flame in Matthew's eyes. "IF you are correct, then you have my permission to pursue." He sits at his desk.

"And if I am incorrect?" Matthew pries.

"Then nothing," Jekyll smiles mockingly.


	3. Chapter 3

New characters this chapter: Richard - Anders Holm, Julie - Jillian Bell, and Mrs. Lawrence - Cloris Leachman

* * *

In the evening:

Daniel and Kaitlyn are on a double date with two of Kaitlyn's friends, Richard and Julie, at a pub.

The couples are adjacent to their significant other in the booth.

"Well, how does it feel to be in your last semester?" Julie asks the couple, smiling already knowing the answer.

Kaitlyn replies with a large grin, "Like I'm ready to use my diploma on video production to hunt the supernatural!" She states triumphantly.

Richard chuckles. "Does that even pay?"

"It better," says Daniel, teasingly.

Kaitlyn feigns shock and gently elbows Daniel's ribs. "Easy there. Not all of us want to be Marine Biologists, okay?"

Richard requests Daniel to pronounce his field of study.

Daniel pronounces slowly, "Ichthyologist."

Richard shakes his head. "I'll never be able to pronounce that."

The four laugh and minutes roll by with food and drinks.

"Kaitlyn told me that your advisor is missing." Julie uncouthly brings up the sensitive topic.

Kaitlyn looks to her with wide eyes, as if to ask "what the hell?"

Julie quickly apologizes and pushes her drink away from herself; as drinking makes her blunt and careless.

The mood became solemn as Daniel gazes at his food in contemplation, while also pushing down any negative feelings.

Daniel clears his throat, brings his attention back to the group, and tells Julie to not apologize. "I don't know if he is missing. All I know is that he should've been back already…if something has happened, then I should get a call from his wife soon."

The somber mood continues until…

"Let's get you a shot," Richard says to Daniel. "See how much of a fish you really are."

Daniel chuckles. "All right, let's do it."

The night continues on happily until the next morning.

Morning in Daniel's dorm room:

Daniel wakes with a hangover, his phone blaring in his ears like a rock concert in an auditorium.

"Damn you, Dick." He curses Richard.

Answering his phone with a groggy "Hello", Daniel is met with the weeping of Mrs. Lawrence.

He looks at his phone, seeing her name on the screen; the severity of this moment sobering him.

"Mrs. Lawrence?" He asks, with hesitation and unease.

"Oh, Daniel," Mrs. Lawrence squeezes out before her crying takes over once more.

Days later, Daniel and Kaitlyn attend the funeral of Dr. Charles Lawrence. Daniel spoke to many family members of Charles', most importantly with Mrs. Lawrence.

Daniel hugs Mrs. Lawrence and asks if there's anything she needs.

"My husband," she responds with a heartsick smile.

Daniel kisses her on the cheek, earning a genuine chuckle from the new widow.

Mrs. Lawrence looks to the floor, sighs, brings her eyes back to Daniel and says, "I more than likely should not be telling you this, but…Charles' work was taken after he died."

"What!?" Daniel holds back his anger, as to not cause a scene.

Kaitlyn rushes to his side and quietly shushes him, holding his arm in support.

Daniel asks at a lower tone, "Who stole his work?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Lawrence clears her throat. "All I know is that they had intervened before. Some agency called…oh, they were named…Prodigious, I believe."

Daniel nods, kisses her hands, says his goodbyes, and storms out of the church.

In the car ride back to Kaitlyn's apartment, the couple is having an argument.

Kaitlyn yells, "You are not going to Brazil!"

"Yes I am!" Daniel fires back. "I cannot let what happened to him go without SOME consequence!"

"If you go there, the only consequence will be your death!"

Daniel glares furiously at the road as he drives. "Nice, Kaitlyn, very nice."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't want you to be killed by the same person or thing that killed Charles."

"I won't be killed!"

"How do you know!?"

"I'm going to take extra precaution!"

Kaitlyn feigns a smile, appalled by what she was hearing. "You're going to take a weapon to kill someone or something?"

"Whatever or whoever killed Dr. Charles deserves what is coming to them."

Kaitlyn had never heard such determination come from Daniel before; she stares at him in shock and disbelief… "Okay…I guess there's no talking you out of this."

"Thank you," says Daniel, his demeanor calming from his previous rage.

They then made it to Kaitlyn's apartment.

"I'm coming with you," says Kaitlyn.

Daniel is now the one shocked. "What?"

"I'm. Coming. With you."

Daniel furrows his brows. "No."

"Yes." Kaitlyn exits the car.

Daniel gets out of the car. "No!" He says a bit sardonically.

Kaitlyn shoots back with the same snarky attitude, "Yes!"

"Kaitlyn. No."

She rushes to Daniel. "What am I supposed to do without you, huh? What am I supposed to do if you die!? Huh!? Tell me!"

Daniel slams the car door. "I don't know!" He crosses his arms and leans against the door, frustrated by the situation.

His face his cupped by her hands.

"I want this relationship to go further than just dating," Kaitlyn confesses. "Don't you?"

He puts his hands over hers. "I do."

They lock eyes.

"Then I'm coming with you to Brazil. I can help you and you know I can."

"I just don't want you to be in danger."

Kaitlyn chuckles. "I want to be a paranormal investigator. I'm going to get into dangerous situations."

Daniel chuckles as well.

They share a kiss and the two agree to go to Brazil together.

That night, Matthew dials on a flip phone.

"Yes, Mr. Wilkens?" Jekyll answers on the other end.

"He is going as I presumed," Matthew reports.

"Then do as you planned. You have my permission to pursue this case."

Matthew thanks Jekyll and hangs up the phone with a proud grin.


	4. Chapter 4

Security Officer - Octavia Spencer. "Grandpa" - Richard Jenkins.

* * *

Daniel opens the door to Kaitlyn's apartment and sees her standing in her kitchen talking to Matthew.

This catches him off guard and slightly angers him, but he keeps his composure.

Kaitlyn smiles and says, "Hey, babe."

"Hey," Daniel replies and hugs her when she jogs over to him.

Matthew comes to Daniel and puts out his hand. "Hello, Daniel."

"Hi, Matthew," Daniel shakes his hand.

When the two stop shaking hands, Kaitlyn claps her hands together.

"Guess what," she beams at Daniel.

Daniel smirks and turns to her. "What?"

"Matthew is coming with us!"

Daniel puts his hand on her shoulder and asks, "Can I talk to you outside?"

Kaitlyn agrees and the two start to go outside.

"I told you, you should have consulted him first," Matthew tells Kaitlyn.

"What he said," Daniel adds before he closes the door.

Kaitlyn apologizes and adds, "I really should have said something to you first."

Daniel widens his eyes and patronizingly says, "Oh yeah you should've."

Kaitlyn's mouth hangs agape with surprise and irritation. "Excuse me? You don't have to be so condescending to me."

"I'm sorry, but why the hell is he coming along anyways!?"

"He's my friend and loves this kind of stuff and has a biology major, why isn't he coming!?"

"I just don't like him, especially not with you alone."

Kaitlyn rolls her eyes. "Oh my god, how many times do I have to tell you that he doesn't like me anymore?"

Daniel sighs and looks away from her, to the parking lot of the apartment building…searching his feelings, not wanting Matthew to go along, wanting to make Kaitlyn happy, and wondering if this was a bad idea to start with.

"Well?"

"Fine."

"Good." She went to the door. "Now, stop sulking." She opens the door with a big smile for Matthew. "You're going!"

Matthew smiles back. "Great."

Jekyll received a text from Matthew that read, 'Success'.

Jekyll messaged back, 'Success of what?'

'My mission to Brazil, sir.'

Jekyll furrowed his brows in confusion and rubbed his palm against his mouth. 'Was there a probability of you not traveling to Brazil for the mission?'

'With all due respect, sir, I feel as if that is inconsequential at this point.'

'Incorrect. You should prepare for defenestration.'

'This will not happen again, sir.'

The next week:

Daniel, Kaitlyn, and Matthew are going through airport security.

Matthew is first to go through the metal detector, followed by Daniel, and then Kaitlyn.

Daniel accidentally bumps into Matthew.

Matthew sighs.

Daniel gets agitated. "What? It was an accident." He said with an attitude.

"I'm sure that it was," Matthew replies with some attitude as well.

"It was," Daniel raises his voice.

"Are we gonna have a problem, you two!?" The female security officer asks.

Daniel and Matthew brush off the incident and continue down the line.

When Matthew goes through the detector, the security officer tells him she likes her white boys tall.

Daniel goes through and is given a 'random' check with the security officer's wand.

She looks at Daniel's ass as she scans him and then lets him go on.

Kaitlyn comes through with her arms crossed, sneering at the security.

"What you glaring at, lil white girl?"

Kaitlyn rolls her eyes and continues on.

"Mm-hmm, that's what I thought." She turns to see an older man standing behind the detector. "Let's go, grandpa, we ain't got all day!"

In the plane, Daniel hands Matthew Kaitlyn's bags, telling him she wants the window seat.

Matthew puts her bags up in the overhead compartment and when he bends down to get his, Daniel puts his bag inside and informs Matthew that he is sitting in the middle. "Of course," Matthew politely says. He puts his bag in last and sits next to Daniel.

After the first few hours, Kaitlyn falls asleep on Daniel's shoulder listening to music as he watches a movie with his head leaned against hers and his arms folded under his chest, while Matthew sits cross-legged reading a book.

When they arrive, Daniel wakes Kaitlyn up and tells her they arrived.

Kaitlyn smiles out the window. "Say hello to Brazil, boys."

The two sarcastically say, "Hello, Brazil." They grin at her after saying this.

She grins back and says, "I hate you both."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Hey, people! I'm sorry for taking so long to get this new chapter out. It's not all I wanted to write for this chapter, but I wanted to get something out to you all so you knew I was still working on this and thinking of you. Haha. Thank you for being patient. I hope you enjoy this chapter and continue to read my story, I am putting more focus into it now and I'm sure I will be updating more frequently than before. Thank you again and enjoy!

* * *

After finding their hotel in the tourist area of Azores, Brazil, the three meet outside in the hall to plan for the day.

Daniel claps his hands together and suggests they get to the mission at hand.

"How about we enjoy our time here first?" Kaitlyn recommends.

Daniel gives her an incredulous look. "Are you serious!?" His voice displaying the confusion and irritation he feels.

Matthew calmly requests Daniel to take it easy.

Daniel then shouts, "'Take it easy'!?"

Kaitlyn quietly, and angrily, tells Daniel to hush.

Daniel's eyes widen as he opens his mouth to argue –

"I'm sorry," Kaitlyn interrupts his soon-to-be tirade and whispers. "But, if there is an organization out there trying to stop people from finding out about this monster, then we probably shouldn't go around snooping for it our first day here."

"She's right," Matthew agrees with Kaitlyn. "Besides, if people know there is existence of monsters or a monster, then that could cause quite a panic."

Daniel reluctantly agrees and the three head off into the night.

They talk with the English speaking locals in their tourist area, looking for the best restaurants and party places, and are told that the best food and street entertainment will be found in the more local areas outside of the tourist sections and the best parties are right where they are.

The three decide to go to the nearest local area, getting an early layout and small rapport with the people. They eat and watch street performers and then go back to the tourist section for dancing.

After midnight, they decide to head back to the hotel.

Daniel is between Matthew and Kaitlyn, holding her hand as she dances and sings one of the songs from the dance club in broken Portuguese.

Once Kaitlyn was done singing and dancing, Matthew asked Daniel why Dr. Charles came to Brazil in a search for a monster.

Daniel grins, reminiscing on Dr. Charles. "He actually didn't know he was searching for a monster. He was originally told there was evidence of a 'fish'," this causes Kaitlyn and Matthew to lightly chuckle, "that was not indigenous to this part of Brazil and was asked to study the intruder and see why it was here."

Kaitlyn says, "And then he found out it was a monster," to no one in particular, more to herself.

"When did he tell you, he was searching for a monster?" Matthew asks Daniel.

Daniel looks up from the left corner of his eyes, attempting to recollect the answer. "I think a month, maybe less. I didn't believe him at first until he said his research had been stolen by some assholes named Prometheus or something."

As Kaitlyn rubs her thumb on Daniel's hand, Matthew sighs at Daniel calling Prodigium 'assholes'.

"I'm sure the organization had a good reason to confiscate his research, they may have been trying to keep him safe." Matthew offers.

Daniel stops walking, anger boiling in his blood. He, however, keeps his face cold from any emotion, but his voice is full of insinuation. "Are you saying Professor Lawrence got himself killed?"

"What?" Matthew turns to Daniel, looking mortified. "Oh, God, no of course I'm not saying that."

Daniel releases Kaitlyn's hand and clenches his fists.

Kaitlyn immediately gets in front of Daniel and grabs his face, attempting to focus his attention on her, but failing. "Look at me," Daniel refuses to comply, "that was not what he meant."

Anger leaks from Daniel's speech. "He may not have meant it, but it IS what he said."

"I am genuinely sorry." Matthew puts his hand on his chest with his apology. "Please, tell me you do understand I did not mean what you think I meant."

"I understand, now." Daniel sighs, giving Kaitlyn a reassuring glance as he grabs her hand and steps ahead of her, putting her back to his side. "I didn't understand at first. I was more worried about what you were saying and here's the thing, you need to learn how to say what you mean. Kaitlyn understood you because you two have history and know each other well enough, but I don't know you, Matthew. So, please, next time…think before you speak." He ends with some attitude.

"I will." Matthew nods and steps to the side, gesturing ahead of them. "Shall we continue to our current residence?" He asks, mildly jocular.

Daniel grins and somewhat chuckles. "Sure thing."

The three head off to their hotel, in lighter spirits than before.


End file.
